Purdy: Once again, Sharks fail to live up to expectations

Share this:

Sharks Joe Thornton, No. 19, skates towards the bench as the Red Wings celebrate Mikael Samuelsson, No. 37, second goal of the game in the first period.

Sharks Ryane Clowe sags after the Detroit Red Wings defeated the Sharks 2-0 to win the Western Conference Semifinals series 4-2.

Sharks Steve Bernier is tackled behind the goal by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Kyle Quincey in the third period. Quincey was called for a penalty on the play.

Sharks Mike Grier hits the post against Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek in the third period. The Wings defeated the Sharks 2-0 in game six of the Western Conference semifinals to win the series four games to two.

Sharks Mike Grier, No. 25, just misses an empty-net wrap-around goal against the Detroit Red Wings in the first period of Game 6.

Sharks Joe Thornton hangs his head during the game against Detroit.

San Jose Sharks assistant coach Tim Hunter, left, confers with head coach Ron Wilson in the second period.

Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov, No. 20, can only watch as a shot by Detroit Red Wings Mikael Samuelsson scores the first goal of the game.

The Sharks have given their fans a lot of thrills the past few seasons. But at a certain point in the playoffs, it always flips. The thrills turn into missed opportunities and mush. Bitter mush.

Joe Thornton was tasting the mush Monday night. The Sharks’ best player sat at his locker, looking drained and dismal. And done.

For the third year in a row, the Sharks had a team that believed it could win it all. And for the third year in a row, they were eliminated an elevator stop or two before reaching the top floor of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Thornton has been around for only the past two eliminations, and this year’s loss was to a Detroit team better than Edmonton was last year. Still, the mush tasted no different.

“No,” Thornton said. “When you lose, you lose. It’s the same feeling. It’s going to suck until the start of the regular season next year…. We’re going to look back and kick ourselves all summer.”

Are the kicks deserved? Yes. The better question is, what can the kickees do to avoid still more self-inflicted kicks next season? The problem is easier to identify than the solution.

The Sharks have been regular-season dynamos since 2004, and they have won more playoff games since 2004 than any other team. On the face of things, their failures in the postseason have not been similar. In 2004 and 2006, Calgary and Edmonton both out-smashed and out-willed the Sharks. Detroit, though, took this series in a much different way, by winning more of the little battles and using its skill to create enough goals at crucial moments.

Yet there was one commonality in all three series defeats by our beloved Los Tiburones. Their basic game plan the past few seasons, frequently voiced by Coach Ron Wilson, has been to force other teams to take penalties, then punish them by scoring on power plays.

It works swell from October through early April. But in the playoffs, not so much. The Sharks invariably run into the very best penalty-killing teams that scout them well (Detroit scout and former coach Scotty Bowman was at every game of the Sharks-Nashville series) and can stifle the power plays. And do.

So what, then? What is PlanB?

Answer: The Sharks still do not have one. That, or they do not have the right players to execute a PlanB. Either way, the result is the same: early tee times.

Against the Red Wings, the Sharks were 2 for 27 with a man advantage. And in the last two games, when they needed power-play goals the most, they were 0 for 10.

“I don’t know,” Thornton said. “We’ll have to look at that. Ask me in about a week…. Our power play is so spectacular in the regular season.”

Wilson had a more definitive analysis.

“We didn’t get enough shots – or any – from the point,” the coach said, later adding for emphasis: “We didn’t even attempt to shoot the damn puck.”

Why? Wilson guessed it was because the point men on the power play were fearful of getting their shots blocked or were looking for absolutely perfect lanes through which to shoot. In the playoffs, absolutely perfect shooting lanes seldom exist.

“We couldn’t penetrate their penalty-kill,” defenseman Craig Rivet, one of those point people, said. “We couldn’t get it down there.”

That was again the most crucial element of Monday’s loss, in spite of all the other stuff that happened. Sharks grinder Mike Grier almost had an empty-net goal but was thwarted. Rivet made a really bad choice in the final seconds of the first period and put himself out of position, allowing a two-on-one rush by the Red Wings for their second goal. Sharks forward Steve Bernier also had a beautiful breakaway chance in the second period that he couldn’t bury.

Yet for all that, if the Sharks had just been able to score a power-play goal in their four chances, the ice could easily have tilted back in their direction. Story of the series: When the Sharks were handed a break, they couldn’t convert. When the Red Wings were handed one, they couldn’t miss.

It must also be said that until the Sharks prove they can come back from adversity, their reputation will be exactly what they presented on the ice Monday. Backed up against the wall, they retreated into the wall. It was their sixth consecutive elimination-game defeat. They need more guys with the will to find ways to win that don’t involve the power play – or with the will to win, period.

“We have the right guys,” captain Patrick Marleau maintained. “We have the right guys. We just didn’t get it done.”

Marleau did not argue that he deserved his share of the blame, going scoreless against the Red Wings. Asked to assess his play, Marleau said: “Not all that great. Good in spurts. And you don’t need that at playoff time.”

It is no disgrace to lose a series to Detroit, a team that earned more points than any other in the Western Conference, a team with at least three future Hall of Famers on the roster.

But it is a huge stain on the Sharks’ otherwise fine season to lose the series as they did. In two of the Sharks’ four losses, they were ahead by two goals. In another, they were ahead by one goal. From the moment of that fateful tying goal with 33.1 seconds left in Game4, the Red Wings outscored the Sharks 7-1.

The Sharks knew how to start. The Red Wings knew how to finish. Just once, you’d like to see the Sharks end their season not answering questions about why the thrills stopped so abruptly.